Mississippi voters won't have to show photo ID to vote

Mississippi voters can vote Nov. 6 without having to show a photo ID as they cast their ballots for president, U.S. senator, congressmen, a Supreme Court justice and a new state senator for DeSoto County along with a state representative for Marshall County and parts of DeSoto.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who is responsible for overseeing the state's elections among other duties, reiterated on Tuesday that the U.S. Justice Department has not yet approved the state law requiring voter photo IDs that legislators passed last spring.

That means voters won't have to provide a photo ID before they are allowed to vote in this election.

Legislators approved the law after Mississippi voters, with more than 62 percent of the vote, last year approved a constitutional amendment requiring voter photo IDs.

Changes to laws affecting voting in Mississippi, given its history of discrimination, must be approved by the Department of Justice to ensure the laws are in accord with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Hosemann said in a news release that the Justice Department has not yet approved the state's voter ID law.

Black state legislators fought the voter ID legislation, charging it puts another stumbling block in the way of minority voters, especially elderly residents who remember the battles over voting rights in the state.

Requiring a photo ID amounts to "what we had before the Voting Rights Act," said Sen. Kenneth Wayne Jones, D-Canton and chairman of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus.

"This is just another face of Jim Crow. It's just another name."

Jones said black caucus members plan to seek an injunction barring implementation of the voter ID bill should the state's legislation receive clearance by the Department of Justice.

Black legislators have called a Monday news conference in the state Capitol to remind voters that they cannot be forced to provide photo identification in order to vote.

Hosemann has said Mississippi's version of a voter ID law stands better chances of withstanding a legal challenge than do similar state laws.

The secretary of state's budget request for the 2014 fiscal year that begins July 1 includes $395,000 to pay outside legal counsel and $200,000 for expert witnesses in defending the state's voter ID law if it comes to that.

Seventeen states have some form of voter ID law, and some have been found to be unfair to the poor and minorities.